Donna Jean Braddy, ASN Program Instructor at STC, welcomed everyone to the ASN pinning ceremony and congratulating the graduates. “I am standing here tonight like a proud mamma,” says Braddy. “I am so proud of my children, here, sitting on stage.” Braddy recalls the first day of class in August of 2016. “These graduates have worked hard to get to this moment in their lives. Tonight is really not the end, but the beginning of a very rewarding career in the healthcare field.”

Sam Oates, APRN, CPNP spoke about some of the changes in the medical field that she has seen in her 40 plus years of being a nurse. “We change…we nurses are great with changing with technology,” says Oates. “We are great at making do with what we've got in any situation and if you’re not now, you will learn to be. But there are things that have not changed in nursing: listening to our patients, conversations with our patients, touch – how you make a patient feel.” In her last remarks, she tells the students, “go forth, treat the world, have fun, be proud people, be proud that you are a nurse; there is no other more noble calling.”

Coertze Peters, ASN Class President, gave the closing remarks. Peters reflected on the good times, as well as the difficult times that had to be endured together. In closing, he thanked the class, “It was a tremendous honor to serve this class. I could not have asked to be associated with a better bunch of people. We were competitive, but never at the expense of friendship. We were serious, but never at the expense of fun. We were ourselves, but never at the expense of what we wanted to be, nurses. And that you are today.”